Hawks put Lions back in their cage at Marvel
Far from a circus act, the young Hawks and their ringleader, James Sicily, put on a performance on Sunday at Marvel
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ROUND 11: HAWTHORN 15.11 (100), BRISBANE 10.15 (75)
📝 Main recap:
These Hawks are building.
It would have been easy for this young group to go back into their shells after a tough loss from a winning position last weekend. But the response on Sunday afternoon against the Lions speaks volumes to what Sam Mitchell and the leaders at Hawthorn are cultivating.
Hawthorn, just quietly, is 3-0 at Marvel Stadium this season. Sunday’s win against the Lions stacks well on top of the upset against the Dogs and the comfortable dismantling of VFL side North Melbourne.
It wasn’t looking like the type of response Hawks fans were looking for initially, as Lachie Neale carved up the Hawks midfield inside the first minute and former-Hawk Brandon Ryan kicked his first in Brisbane colours.
Cue the Brad Klibansky tweet comparing Ryan to Ben Ronke and calling it disgraceful (or something like that)
Not this week, and not this Hawthorn team.
Led by returning skipper and midfield gun James Sicily and Will Day, the Hawks responded with goals to Jack Gunston, Cam Mackenzie, Jack Ginnivan and Day seeing us fight back from our first challenge and head to the quarter time huddle with a nice buffer.
The second quarter was more of an arm wrestle, with Brisbane slowly clawing their way back into the game, but the Hawks managed to hold them at bay until half time.
Two Mabior Chol goals and a pearler from Calsher Dear were among the highlights of the second term, along with some controlled possession to end the quarter. Maturity, right in front of our eyes.
The Lions were always going to mount a comeback and that proved to be the case after half time, as they whittled away the Hawks lead. And if not for a Jack Gunston red time goal (it’s much nicer when you’re kicking them than having them kicked on you) things could have been much different at three quarter time.
Important to note that Oscar McInerney and the Lions did most of their damage through the middle when Lloyd Meek was off with an ankle injury - his importance to this team grows from week to week.
This week, however, we would not see a young Hawthorn team overrun by a more fancied, and far more experienced opponent.
As our captain said in his post match chat, the Hawks were purposeful in their dare and attacking intent in the last quarter and it more than paid off - a five goal to two closing term leading the Hawks to a 25 point victory.
It was sealed by a Luke Breust goal after the siren… poetic.
Bring on the post dub selfies with the boys.
🧐 Things we like to see — Worpel the clearance machine
We had just been shown the stat on the broadcast of the last 10 inside 50’s in the game - including the last from James Worpel which resulted in a Hawthorn goal. So to see him do it again from the ensuing bounce, streaking through the middle post fend off, and delivering lace out to Mabior Chol was seeing him back doing what he does best. Beast.
🧐 Things we like to see — Attack for the win
In stark contrast to the week prior, our team learnt their lesson and went the attack in the final term chasing the win. And how good was it. This piece of play typified it where Sicily had received the ball on defensive 50 via a kick in, found Dylan Moore through the middle with a bullet like pass, in turn he handed it to Conor Nash who ran, took a bounce, and delivered to Chol. Heaven.
The kick from Sicily was summed up perfectly by friend of HI, Nat Martin ⬇️
🧐 Things we like to see — Old heads, better result
Much of the same attacking happened as the quarter went on, but this was perhaps the feel good moment of the game which really cemented the win. Incredible pressure from Jarman Impey and Connor Macdonald on the wing, slick hands to Moore, off to Luke Breust and a laser-like pass to his sparring partner Jack Gunston. Gunners kicked the goal which had all the feels - cool heads combining and hopefully not the last Breust-Gunston one-two punch we see.
🕵🏻♂️ Eight observations from Ash
Hard to work out what was more pleasing on Sunday. The 30 minutes or so in which the Hawks took over the game and jumped to a 35-point lead, or the final quarter during which they absorbed the best the Lions had to throw at them, steadied and then won running away.
And that’s not even mentioning late in the second term, when the Lions started to get on top, only for Hawthorn to wrest back control, play some tempo footy and even score a critical red-time goal.
Not sure how many great games Jack Gunston has left, but Sunday was one of them. Deployed primarily to negate the excellent Harris Andrews, he not only broke even, but kicked four goals. And his radar, which has been missing for much of the season was back.
The Hawks put plenty of work into Andrews. Not sure the Lions did the same into James Sicily, who played his most effective game for the season.
At this stage, Will Day is Hawthorn’s one genuine A Grader and on Sunday he played like it – 26 touches, 23 effective. Welcome back, Sir Will.
James Worpel had a terrific game. Nice ‘don’t argue’ in the second term as well. Both he and Jai Newcombe were able to break tackles on Sunday. They are super-confident in the clinches.
No coincidence really that Brisbane’s best patch came with Lloyd Meek off the ground. The big fella has become such an important part of the side.
Luke Breust started his AFL journey as the super-sub and that might be where he ends it. But he was great in the last quarter and Sam Mitchell seemed to indicate that it might be his role going forward.
So far so good for CJ. We are seeing the best of him, two-way running and great second efforts, without the brain farts with the ball. Looking forward to his return to the MCG next week.
Not too many quibbles to be had about Sunday. Massimo D’Ambrosio has been a good pick-up, but I stopped counting after he kicked it straight to the opposition. And Croc McDonald steaming into goal and missing, with teammates on their own closer to goal, is becoming a weekly occurrence. That said, the set shot goal in the final stanza was critical.
That’s 3-0 for the Hawks at Docklands in 2024. Not since 20-16 have the Hawks swept their season schedule under the roof. And 29,000 fans – all but a few thousand supporting the Hawks – was a healthy crowd. Maybe, just maybe, Hawk fans are warming to the venue. And if the jungle drums are right, we might have to get used to visiting there more frequently in the future. One for the Spaces in the next few weeks.
Saturday afternoon footy (remember that?) at the MCG next week. These Hawks are fun to watch again. Be there.
⭐️ Best on ground — Will Day
It can be pretty easy to forget about just how good a player is when they miss consecutive weeks of footy. And perhaps when we were getting smashed to pieces in the opening five rounds there were those among us that forgot just how good a player Will Day is. It’s the second time in two weeks we have given Day best on ground, having racked up 26 touches (with 88% disposal efficiency), a whopping nine score involvements, six tackles, four clearances and a goal. No doubt his form is assisted with Lloyd Meek dominating in the middle fo the ground, and no coincidence that the form of this duo over the past months has led to our much improved performances. Gun.
💫 Rising star — Cam Mackenzie
Another cracking goal from Mackenzie as part of his 16-disposal, and seven score involvement display. While he is not having huge numbers games at the moment, it is what he does with the footy and his impact on the scoreboard that is telling. Every game that goes by provides more windows into the quality that Mackenzie possesses, and his continued development and game time this season will be a solid foundation for the glittering career that awaits. We have said it many times in 2024 - one of the biggest positives so far this season.
👼 Unsung hero(es) — Josh Weddle and Sam Frost
Did outstanding jobs looking after the Lions’ big men including minding former Hawk Brandon Ryan but more importantly, spearhead Joe Daniher. Registered 15 spoils between them - noting that there were 61 in the entire game and controlled our defensive 50 - allowing James Sicily to play his normal floating role. Ryan kicked a goal inside the first minute of the opening term and only registered one more touch for the entire game. Daniher could only drag down three marks and kick two goals - one of which was the result of a James Sicily free kick in the third quarter and the other in the 28th minute of the final term. Outstanding.
🤯 Under pressure — Seamus Mitchell
May have only had 63% time of field at Marvel against the Lions, but Mitchell’s return of four touches (only two of which were effective), might have our small defender under the pump at the selection table. Only managed six disposals last week against the Power and 11 the week prior against the Saints - 21 touches in three games of footy is not the sort of return that Shammy will be hoping for.
👀 Box Hill watch — Josh Ward and Chad Wingard
There wasn’t a lot to get excited about out of the 68 point drubbing Box Hill copped on Saturday afternoon. A couple of glimmers of hope came in to form of another promising Josh Ward performance, finishing with 23 disposals, 7 marks, 5 clearances and 6 tackles, and a hanger and a couple of goals from Chad Wingard, who finished the day with 2.1 goals from his 11 disposals. Ethan Phillips and Max Hall were withdrawn from the team late, which didn’t help, but it is clear that Box Hill are missing a key forward target.
😡 Brad’s early call
🧐 The burning question — Should we just play more games at Marvel?
Three from three in 2024 with murmurings that there are more games to come at the Docklands in future seasons. But maybe that’s a good thing? Of course we want to be playing as many games as possible at the ground where we have won - and will continue to win, flag after flag after flag. But perhaps the covered ground which allows pristine conditions to rule will suit out free, fast flowing game-plan as the kids continue to be moulded into a premiership unit?
🎤 Sammy said what!?
“Normally your learnings you don’t get to implement straight away but we did a fair bit of work during the week - it was pretty painful to be honest.”
“The players were amazing in their commitment to really try and make sure we learnt the lessons.”
“Today we handled the situation better.”
“We are still a work in progress.”
“We let them get well and truly on top and some of their kicking kept us in it for different periods, but collectively we handled the emotion of the game and the momentum of the game.”
“We took our chances today - some of our goal kicking was very important which has let us down at times.”
We love winning - when you’re walking off and you see the fans and you see the joy that you bring - we’ve got to continue to put out a product that deserves to win.”
🗣️ Final words — James Sicily
It was fitting that we had an exclusive chat with our captain in the rooms after the win, and he was certainly in a calm but reflective mood. Hear from our captain as he discussed the win against the Lions and how as a club we are tracking in the right direction.
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The biggest thing we’re seeing is the growth of our team. Of course, there have been some excellent individual performances over recent weeks, none more so than Meek and Day, but these boys look like a team that understands the method that Sam is developing. Our ability to absorb opposition pressure (as bad as Q4 was last week, two of their 4 goals for the quarter came in the last 35 seconds) is a huge improvement and the balance between scoring from clearance and turnover is a big step forward (last season, we were quite reliant on stoppage success, especially centre clearances). There’s some balance to our game – we can go fast, and we can hold it up, we can score from turnover and from clearance – and this is a big positive. Love Mick's classifying us as a middleweight - great way to describe it.
While Seamus’s possession numbers may be down, he is an important part of the back six. He is sound defensively and has done a reasonable job on the best small forward in recent weeks. Dimma is fantastic, but he doesn’t provide that run from behind that is so important to moving the ball. Seamus, Jarman and Weddle are our answer to Blakey, Florent, and Roberts/Cunningham. We saw last season, especially in the Melbourne game, what Seamus can do with his speed, kicking, and defensive ability – he’s an important part of what we’re building and is one to persist with. Given his interruptions, he is one we would expect to improve with some continuity, similarly with CJ, whose now played his first two games in over a year and has real upside.
There is still some selection balancing with Gunston and Breust and while not ideal, perhaps Punky’s role for the remainder of the season will be primarily as the sub. While he’s not necessarily the ideal candidate to play that role, I wonder how much value he’s giving as an on the bench coach – he is regularly interacting with players as they come off. It was so good to see his reaction after kicking the final goal – and clearly shows how invested he is. With Watson available this week, selection will be challenging.
Granted Calsher isn’t winning heaps of the ball, but he again hit the scoreboard, had multiple shots at goal and was unlucky not to be paid a contested mark that would have been another shot at goal. He’s also the third option down there and it’s likely that very few entries go his way. Others will know better, but these senior games that Calsher’s having, especially where he’s playing alongside Gunners, is most likely further fast tracking his development and is more beneficial than playing at Box Hill. Watching him is just pure feel-good stuff.
It seems that Mackenzie has taken the role that Josh Ward couldn’t quite nail down – a mix of predominantly wing, with bursts in the middle and at half forward. He looks like a player that’s growing in confidence and his ability to be a helping hand in defence and bob up and kick a goal is testament to his high-level running power. While he fluffed one kick when exiting defence, his kicking otherwise was excellent. He’s developing very nicely.
I feel a little torn with winning as want to preserve a high draft selection this year – is that stupid thinking? A high-end talented player would round out six years of going to the draft (unfortunately, the selection of Denver, who really struggled with Box Hill on the weekend, looks like a failed pick and the jury is out on Josh Ward). In some ways, the Port Adelaide game was the perfect result! Perhaps that’s way off the mark.
On the AFL website, Isaac Smith has a podcast where he interviews coaches and I believe that the most recent interview was with Mitch. It gives real insight into Mitch’s thinkings and his approach to coaching. I know it’s just talk, but it gave me great comfort that we’re in good hands. There was also a strong message that this is a very united playing group. It’s definitely worth a listen.
happy to announce the safe arrival of Sherrin Sicily